Lockdown week 7, Sunday

Today we went down to Daughter 2's Edinburgh flat because we wanted some joinery work done. (Or "doing", as English people would say.)The joiner wanted to look at the job, reasonably enough, and suggested 9.30am. So we got a taxi there (Daughter 1 and SIL 1 have our car at the moment). It was very worth while because the joiner was extremely helpful and just did the job on the spot, for less than he'd quoted in advance - how often does that happen? We were in separate rooms while he worked, by the way.

And then we walked home, mainly along the river.

Can you see the Castle on the horizon? It's visible from lots of places in the city because it's high on a rock. (Americans say "a rock" when we would say "a stone", I think. Here, rocks are bigger than stones. But I suppose we'd normally say that what the Castle stands on is a hill... but then, it's not a grassy hill, it's a big rocky one. And it's always called "The Castle Rock". I do love language and its permutations. Currently, our newspaper, The Scotsman - read also by women - has an advert that says, "If you're wanting to place an announcement in the paper...". That's a very Scottish expression - "if you're wanting".)

At this point we came up into the street

and then down again,

on these rather fancy steps.

And up again. I like the look of cobbles but there are fewer and fewer in the city now, because they're not good for cycles - or, probably, cars - and also expensive to maintain. But I love the different colours in the stones.

And down again and then, presently, home. 5.2 miles.

The weather was colder today but the sun shone in the afternoon. SIL 1 came round on his bike and sat in the garden, chatting to us at a distance, for a short while. The purpose of his visit was to collect some banana cake (we have surplus; I wonder why?) and to get some exercise. It was lovely to see him.

Later: hand-quilting and some television.

Very restful. But, like everyone else, I wish I could see an end to this. Boris Johnson is slackening the restrictions in England but our First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, is not. Well, apart from allowing us to go outside for more than an hour, and twice instead of once. I fear we've been ignoring the hour thing, since our walks usually take us longer, but I think some common sense has to come into it. I don't think an hour and a half in a big empty space is going to make any difference. The sad thing is that she's not going to allow grandparents to see their grandchildren or garden centres to open, but on the other hand, I expect this means that she won't allow golf courses to open for golfers either. So that's something - depending on one's point of view.